MSM: Tales Of Harmonair

This is a bit broad... I'll try my best to provide some general headcanons but I don't want to make this too long. I'm sorry I kept you waiting.

A lot of monsters in the Workshop--and its surrounding area, the Underbelly--live in close-knit communities for safety since the Dissonance is particularly powerful inside of Zarroe's petrified body. It feeds off of the traces of Colossal energy seeping from the terrain.

While the Workshop itself used to be an industrial hotspot, it’s gone into a bit of disrepair since the Dissonance started attacking, especially around the island’s rough edges where it’s hard to constantly defend from intruders. As a result it’s legally required for monsters to wear armor and have some ways of self defense in case of an ambush if they go outside of the walls, which is almost guaranteed.

For some of the monsters themselves, I detailed a bit on Yooreek and Gaddzooks on my main blog here. Most of the monsters I have at least a headcanon design for, but I haven't really figured out some of their biology/behaviors/etc. I'll give what I do have below.

Auglur: Auglurs are the mobile technicians of the Workshop. When they are made, they are bestowed a spell that allows them to connect to and control any piece of technology around them via digital panels, which they can also use to make music if needed. They are not able to fly per se, but can float/levitate to high places and to help soften their falls.

Meebkin: Meebkin have organs that release pheromones into the air, which attracts meebs to them. The meebs, in exchange for giving a small amount of their magic to the Meebkin, gain protection from predators and other threats like the Dissonance, and will happily stay by the side of the Meebkin for days at a time, supplying them with magic for their spells.

Blarret: Unusual for their tendency group up only with others of their species rather than with other species like the rest of the Workshop monsters, Blarrets have slowly become more and more used to the company of different monsters like Auglurs. Their multiple mouths all lead to the same digestive system--why they have this is unknown, but it is probably just an aesthetic choice of Zarroe's, like many other ethereal monsters.

Whaill: Whaill skin is heavily researched by both Harmonologists and the monsters themselves for its acid-resistant properties, which are not a feature that the species was created with, but rather one that it adapted to live in Zarroe's "stomach". They can only eat out of the mouth on their stomach but their other mouths all have much sharper teeth than the main one which help to capture and grind prey for consuming.

Vhenshun: The Vhenshun is a widely recognizable symbol of the Workshop. Originally created by Zarroe in union with Zeffree, they were made to assist with industry and construction (mostly the former). When the Dissonance began to attack, many of them fled the Workshop into the Underbelly and have stayed there ever since, feeding on fossil fuels that the decomposition of Zarroe's body has created (oil, coal, etc). Lone workshoppers seeking safety often find themselves riding these rogue Vhenshuns.

what are your headcanon(s) on Air Wubs?

one of mine is that like horses with running, their bodies have been optimized to be light enough for flight, though with a few side effects (such as them having to eat once a day instead of every few days like other Wub subspecies due to their reduced digestive system and inability to hold on to fat well)

Hiii!! Okay first of all your headcanon is fucking awesome I love that. Second I LOVE air wubs. So ready yourself for my amazing and wonderful Wall of Text. So just in case anybody is unlucky enough to see this on their dashboard, that down there is the elusive “Read more” button. I have spared you, for now. Proceed at your own risk.

Yes, I do, but the Paironormals are not really monsters I focus on too much when it comes to ToH’s story, so I apologize if I don’t have much to say.

Owlesque’s human form is one we don’t really know much about. However, they do imply that they have been a bit of a troublemaker, and may not even have owned a home. The Carnival’s best guess is that they were a Robin Hood-type figure.

When they passed through the Seam into Harmonair, Owlesque lost a lot of their humanity. They essentially act like a cryptid and actually are considered one in the Mistlands (Faerie Island).

Owlesque is, notoriously, the hardest paironormal to contain. The Colossals have HAD IT with them and at this point they don’t really even care anymore. Their house is essentially a super secure cage. They basically taught the other Paironormals how to break through the Seam into the human world.

(Idk why this was the first thing I thought of)

Paironormals change forms based on their mood, usually. A lot of them have their major form as their default since that form is associated with happy and calm emotions, like the major key. Minor forms are often reserved for very specific negative feelings like anger, insecurity, paranoia, etc.

Some Paironormals can switch immediately at will—these ones often know how to listen to, and to an extent control their own body and emotions to trigger a transformation from major to minor and vice versa. These are individuals like Scallyrags and Owlesque.

heights of the Paironormals for Tales of Harmonair. May do more of these in the future for some other monster species.

Jeeode is an interesting one!!

They’re actually a lot like Wubboxes since they’re mad of a bunch of parts held together by magical forces that have to be sustained—and they do that by constantly absorbing new crystals to refresh their bodily makeup, their equivalent of eating. Each one of their body parts has its own "circulatory system" with liquid minerals & metals instead of blood, which is transported between the parts via Crystal magic. It appears as a barely noticable mist between their limbs.

Their closest relatives are actually Quarrister, and their life cycle is somewhat similar too, except that they don't huddle together for protection and then move on from there. Jeeodes start as a bud inside a geode-like protective shell, and then using what little magic they have at creation they absorb surrounding minerals and develop their bodies from there. This means that their body can be made from materials other than gemstone, so long as Crystal magic can clump it together.

Also like their relatives, they can shape and carve their body parts to their liking, making "tattoos" of sorts that can mean various different things such as their occupation, marital status, or other things. Using their magic they can even add minerals to their body parts over time, or to objects that they enchant--this is how their drums/pads are made.

This might be a shocker…

…but Jam Boree is technically a natural quint in ToH given its residence in the Gleamlands (Gold Island).

Your silly little cake guy has the same elemental properties as a monster that is essentially the Mothman of Harmonair.

This one might be a little disappointing.

In ToH’s universe, the Colossals don’t really like to exchange important senses or sensations for aesthetics—which is surprising, given that they have gone quite far sometimes with making monster species into their image.

That is a GREAT question, and I actually do have an answer.

Legendaries also got reclassified, but they’re a bit more complicated. Essentially what the “Legendary” class encompasses in ToH is monsters that have no elements whatsoever, and 99% of these are humans that got “Seamed” (pulled through the Seam into Harmonair). They start out with no elements and then gain their properties as they start to study magic. Some of course are more predisposed to one element—Shugabush are a prominent example—but for most, all possibilities are equal.

As a little bonus, here are my headcanons for the Werdo Muses’ elements since we’re on this topic:

Tawkerr - Cold

Parlsona - Air

Maggpi - Water

Stoowarb - Earth

shLep I think was likely spawned from a Cherubble’a dream about some unpleasant encounters they had with a Jlellijiggle, Anemonon and maybe also a Haymaker (rare) Yawstrich? I don’t really know. It definitely came from a nightmare.

As for biological makeup, this one is a bit odd. shLep feed specifically on monster blood or blood-equivalent, much to the dismay of the citizens of the Islands of Oneiros. However, thankfully, a mixture that can give them relatively the same nutrients that they receive from blood has been developed by some ingenious monsters from the nearby Outer Reach—both areas are on Harmonair’s moon (which I have yet to name, lol). They basically drink this to survive.

Ough… this is a hard one. I don’t really have too many headcanons for the Paironormals but I can tell you what I currently have so far.

ANGLOWWWW!!! I <3 Anglow too. They actually made me rearrange a bunch of things for ToH and made it kinda what it is right now as a planet in a solar system rather than something else.

Anglow are, of course, not genetically modified by the Colossals and are their own thing, a sophont alien race right here on Harmonair. So their biology is gonna be different and also hella fuckin’ weird.

Anglows have a very strong pod mentality (pod = group of Anglows). They hunt like killer whales and honestly act a lot like them too under the water. The Elderglow is usually the oldest one in the pod and has the job of watching and raising the offspring of the other Anglows.

They’re also cathemeral—not active at any particular time of day, just whenever. However, they do follow a behavioral pattern depending on when they are active. During the daytime they reside in the depths of the Living Ocean but when night falls they come up to the surface layers, likely to feed.

Despite how feral and offputting they may look at first glance, they actually have made lots of technological advancements, even some allowing them to exit the water for extended periods of time.

HIIIII I LIKE KAYNA TOO!!!! Kayna’s my second favorite monster actually :) I have a lot of headcanons for them!!

Kaynas are actually bird monsters like tweedles and glowls, but a very primitive type specifically, sort of like the Harmonic equivalent of a velociraptor. They even have little vestigial wings and tail feathers but these get covered up by their rock-scutes as they grow to become adults.

Their round bellies are actually not just to accommodate their stomach, but rather a separate organ used for digesting the rocks that they eat. The minerals from these get deposited into their furthers, becoming hardened rock-scutes that not only provide protection, but also will melt when they concentrate their fire magic into their limbs, adding an even more devastating layer to their self-defense. The same organ also allows the Kayna to spit up the molten rocks as a last resort.